

♦ 




A 















« 


\ 



































THE GREAT JAPANESE 
EMBASSY OF 1860 ; 

V9f 


A forgotten chapter in the history of inter¬ 
national amity and commerce and of 
the development of the Far East 


Read before the American Philosophical Society at 
Philadelphia, April 21, 1910, by 


Patterson DuBois 

'A 




















THE GREAT JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


A Forgotten Chapter in the History of International 

Amity and Commerce 

By PATTERSON DUBOIS. 

(Read April 21, 1910.) 

The American trader with Japan, the traveller or sojourner in 
Japan, and the national representative or envoy to Japan, all find 
their transactions with the Japanese greatly facilitated by certain 
American ideas, patterns and methods now firmly rooted in Japanese 
practise. 

First and foremost, the money system corresponds closely to that 
of the United States and the coinage itself is convenient, exact and 
trustworthy. In close accord with this, the American feels himself 
comparatively at home with the banking, postal and telegraph facili¬ 
ties, in public school aspects, and finally, he takes comfort in the 
assurance of an up-to-date dentistry and surgery. 

But the international American little realizes how all these 
essentials of modern western life came to be imported from his 
own country and adopted by the keen-eyed Japanese as indis¬ 
pensable models for the Meiji or “enlightened rule.” 

The historic fact has dropped into almost total oblivion. This 
practical Americanizing of Japan harks back to the well-nigh for¬ 
gotten visit of the great Japanese Embassy to the United States in 
i860. 

After the first assurance of friendly relations or amity, the 
rock-bottom of a stable, thriving and reciprocal commerce between 
two nations is to be found—as already indicated—in a scientifically 
exact and trustworthy coinage and system of exchange. Of this, 
more later. But first, as to the historical setting of one of the most 
picturesque and potent of all international events. 

Americans delight to shout themselves hoarse in the praise of 

Reprinted from Proceedings American Philosophical Society, Vol. xlix , 1910. 


244 


DUBOIS—JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


[April 2 i f 


Perry. We rightly glorify the tactful, gallant and picturesque 
manner in which he punctured the screen which shut out the 
western world from the eye of the Rising Sun. We have a suffi¬ 
cient feeling that he took the initative in securing friendly, to be 
followed by trade, relations in advance of all other nations—what¬ 
ever slippery foothold the Portuguese, English and Dutch had at 
one time or another acquired only to lose again. We are sure 
enough that Japan’s introduction to the circle of commercial nations 
was an American performance and that Perry took the initiative 
hand in it. 

And there we stop. We know that American training goes back 
to Japan in the person of many a university graduate and we know 
of other influences, military, naval, industrial, commercial educa' 
tional, professional, ethical, religious, which Japan has sought and 
obtained from both Europe and America. But we do not seem to 
realize that to certain impressions made upon the barbaric and 
wondering embassy of i860 may be traced definite and continuous 
lines of development through the vitalizing of more or less latent 
Japanese powers and ideals. The work which Perry began in 
11853—54 was only completed in the visit of the embassy of i860 to 
this country. Indeed the embassage is the one signal factor in 
making the Perry incident permanently effective. Nor was it com¬ 
pleted in the signing of the treaty in Washington, whatever might 
be officially held to the contrary. It is safe to say that the Japanese 
learned more which has proved germinal in their re-making, from 
their visit to the United States—but especially to Philadelphia, im¬ 
mediately following the diplomatic formalities in Washington, in' 
i860, than from any other one American source since Perry 
anchored in the Bay of Yeddo. Indeed I propose here to show 
such a historical continuity and persistence of certain formative 
elements of modern progress now accepted as the fixed order of 
things in Japan, and even incipiently in China, as can be traced to 
no other visible historical source than the embassage of i860. And 
this, notwithstanding the complete revolution in the government and 
policy of Japan eight years later. 

And yet, as I said at the outset, this embassy seems to have 


i9io.] 


DUBOIS—JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


245 


passed almost into oblivion. The president of the American Asiatic 
Association in an article (1907, The Outlook ) speaks of it as “one 
of several missions which about that time were sent by the Shogu- 
nate to other countries.” In a general sense this is true, but more 
strictly the truth is that in Townsend Harris’s negotiation of the 
commercial treaty in 1858 the Americans insisted that the first 
embassy to go out from Japan to any country should visit the 
United States first of all. 

An English authority, Mr. J. Morris, in his able book, “ Makers 
of Japan,”—to which I make acknowledgment—admits that 
“Modern Japan dates from the advent ... of the American 
squadron under Commodore Perry in 1853;” an d that the Perry 
compact was “ the thin edge of the wedge.” And yet he gives no 
indication of any knowledge of the embassy of i860 for in noting 
the mission of the Marquis Ito abroad in 1871, he says that his was 
not the first embassage, “ for a mission of two feudal barons had 
been sent to Europe in the early ’sixties.” 

Even admitting that this embassy was one “ of courtesy ” merely, 
as Dr. Griffis and others say, we shall see that something more 
vitalizing and lasting than courtesy grew out of it. 

That the embassy of i860 should have dropped so completely 
out of sight as an international event will doubtless lead many to 
conclude that at best it was but a spectacular fizzle entirely wanting 
in constructive elements or continuing effects. Others will remind 
us that from the invasion of Perry up to and after the first foreign 
embassage all intercourse was through the Shogun or “ Tycoon ” 
whose rule was becoming rapidly challenged and his authority in a 
large part of Japan denied. But the embassy was neither a mere 
courtesy, a spectacular fizzle nor was it of temporary import. Nor 
does the subsequent overthrow of the Shogun in any degree vitiate 
the contention that specific visible lines of Japanese progress emerge 
from the personal presence of the “princes” and their retinue in the 
United States in i860. 

On the part of Japan all international adjustments at this period 
were made by authority of the Shogun—better known at that time 
in the West as the “ Tycoon.” And who was the Shogun, or what 




246 


DUBOIS—JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


[April 2 i, 


was the Shogunate? He was a military commander-in-chief, who 
had won his arbitrary power—or held it—as the strongest of the 
feudal barons. He was de facto ruler of Japan, his government 
being centered at Yeddo (now Tokio). The ruler de jure was the 
Mikado whose position was that of a sort of deified headship and an 
inert nominality. 

The Shogunate began with the house of Tokugawa in 1603. It 
ended by the voluntary resignation of Prince Tokugawa Keiki in 
1868 in the interest of national preservation and progress. For_ 
nearly two and a half centuries the Shogunate was the personifica¬ 
tion of a military supremacy in one of the most complete and exact¬ 
ing feudal systems known to history. 

It was the Shogun Iyesada who became the treaty maker of 
1854. It was the Ten-shi, or Mikado, the ruler de jure, Komei, 
who, under pressure from the Shogun’s opposers, rallied his nerves 
to the extent of refusing to ratify these treaties even though he ulti¬ 
mately gave way. But he had a large official and popular backing. 
In fact the double-headed rulership had become a source of strife 

_ t 

which threatened to disrupt the country. The opening of the door 
to the foreigner and the introduction of foreign methods were fast 
becoming the national dispute. 

In spite of the expulsion of all foreigners, except a few severely 
restricted Hollanders, and the massacre of Christians in the seven¬ 
teenth century, in spite of a universal espionage and lips sealed to 
foreigners, in spite of barbaric military standards and codes of 
honor—spears and swords outranking firearms—the scent of 
western enlightenment gradually penetrating the air quickened a 
new consciousness of unrealized power. Feudal rule had for some 
years given rise to murmurs and calls were heard for a full restora¬ 
tion of the Ten-shi, or Mikado, to real power. So Iyesada’s treaties 
were made a plausible ground of opposition to the Shogunate even 
by the progressive clans who had introduced a number of foreign 
inventions. For the purpose of getting rid of the Shogunate the 
slogan of these very progressionists was the expulsion of the alien. 

The Shogun adhered to his policy of admitting the alien (first 
forced by Perry) but as soon as the progressive clans succeeded in 


1910.] 


DUBOIS—JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


247 


overthrowing the Shogun’s supporters they at once advocated the 
policy of opening the country to strangers, also. It is important to 
note this as it goes to show that although the embassy of i860 was 
sent out by the boy Shogun, Iyemochi, yet the American impress 
which it carried back was in accord with that progression which 
ultimately triumphed even though the Shogunate was abolished. 

Perry landed his men at the little village of Uraga in the Bay of 
Y r eddo in July, 1853. For two hundred and thirty years no stranger 
had entered the feudal empire of the Rising Sun. Perry delivered, 
through messenger, President Fillmore’s letter and sent word to the 
Shogun Iyeyoshi that he would return the next year for an answer. 
When Perry returned in February, 1854, Iyeyoshi was dead and 
Iyesada reigned in his stead, and the treaty of amity was signed, 
March 31, 1854, opening two ports to us, Shimoda and Hakodadi, 
for trade and all ports for ships in distress. As a matter of fact 
Shimoda was not opened but Kanazawa was selected as the first port 
to be opened to trade. 

In 1858 the Shogun Iyesada died and was succeeded by a fifteen- 
year-old boy Shogun, Iyemochi, and his regent prince; and it was 
under this rule that the embassy of i860 was sent to the United 
States. This period suffered from internecine strife on questions 
of alien influence, feudalism and dynastic ambition. Moreover, the 
Mikado was being pressed by certain feudal lords to close the ports, 
abrogate the treaties and expel the strangers. But the foreign 
powers were also pressing the regent to stand by the agreements. 
Then, just after he had sent out the embassy, *the regent was 
assassinated. This was in March, i860. The country was in a 
ferment but the great embassy was on its way across the Pacific. 

The thin edge of the wedge inserted by the Perry compact in 
1854 was chiefly one of amity and of hospitality to our seamen. 
Nevertheless it was to pave the way for closer commercial relations, 
through another treaty. This latter treaty was negotiated by our 
Consul-general Townsend Harris, July 29, 1858. 

Mr. Harris had raised the United States flag over an ancient 
Buddhist temple at Shimoda September 44, 1856, and established our 
legation there, being “ the first of the diplomatic representatives of 


248 


DUBOIS—JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


[April 21 , 


foreign powers/’ as Morris concedes, “to dwell in the newly 
awakened "Land of Sunrise and the first to arrange a treaty of com¬ 
merce.” Harris had a hard time of it. President Pierce sent him 
out in 1855. He remained in seclusion for nearly two years at 
Shimoda—the tip end of the southeastern coast—before he could 
get an audience with the Shogun. Until he could do it in person he 
refused to deliver the President’s letter. For about eighteen months 
he was without news from home—receiving neither letter nor news¬ 
paper. He entered Yeddo in November 1857, gained his long in- 
sisted-upon audience December 7, 1857, spent some months in 
parley and finally signed the treaty of commerce July 29, 1858. 
This treaty became the model for others between Japan and Euro¬ 
pean nations. It is interesting, too, that when the British Earl of 
Elgin arrived for a similar purpose, Harris “ lent ” his secretary, 
Mr. Hewsken, to act as interpreter for the British envoys. Lord 
Elgin negotiated a treaty similar to Harris’s and it was signed 
August 26, 1858. Thus the first British treaty was signed about 
six months after Perry’s and the second one was signed one month 
after Harris’s. 

Now the agreement with Harris was that his treaty should be 
ratified in Washington. Under our treaties, however, no Japanese 
envoy was to go out until after America had been officially visited. 
After deferring the dreaded event as long as possible the Japanese 
finally applied to the United States for a man-of-war to transport 
the envoys. 

It was on March 27, i860, that the United States man-of-war 
Powhatan arrived at San Francisco, carrying the ambassadors and 
their immense retinue. After a few days of dining and sight-seeing 
the visitors reembarked for Washington by way of the isthmus— 
this being nine years before our east and west coasts were united by 
rail. 

The United States man-of-war Roanoke awaited the orientals at 
Aspinwall (now Colon), a flourishing seaport and the Atlantic-side 
terminus of the forty-nine-mile railway connecting it with Panama, 
the entrepot of the Pacific side. Aspinwall was on the qui vive. 
In anticipation the United States flag officer courteously invited the 


i9io.] 


DUBOIS—JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


249 


British Rear-Admiral Sir Alexander Milne to come on board the 
Roanoke when the embassy should arrive. The invitation was de¬ 
clined, the rear-admiral subsequently remarking (so reported) that 
it was “ a great farce, foolish and nonsensical/’ Nor would he 
raise his flag, though every other vessel did. His attitude gave the 
Japanese an unfavorable impression of the English nation—so re¬ 
ported later by one of the retinue. 

Under command of Captain S. F. Dupont the ship Philadelphia 
left Washington, May 11, for Hampton Roads where the embassy 
was to be officially received. On May 12, at 9.30 p. m., the 
Roanoke arrived in the roadstead. She was boarded by Capt. Du¬ 
pont; Capt. Taylor of the Marine Corps; Mr. Ledyard, son-in-law 
of the Secretary of State; Mr. Portman, the Dutch interpreter; 
Commander Lee (brother of Robert E. Lee and father of the late 
Fitzhugh Lee) ; Lieut. David D. Porter (later, commanded the 
expedition against Fort Fisher, later, Admiral) ; Mr. McDonald, 
invited guests, and reporters. After the formalities of presentation 
in the cabin of the Roanoke the treaty itself was exposed to view. 
Up to the present time it had been kept wrapped in a case of red 
cloth and sacredly secured in a superb lacquered chest about three 
feet long, eighteen inches wide, and twenty-six inches deep, never 
out of sight of a guard, and transported by poles resting on the 
shoulders of four men. 

Two days later, May 14, the transfer of the entire company, 
box, bag and baggage, from the Roanoke to the Philadelphia was 
completed. The envoys and retinue of all grades numbered no less 
than seventy-six persons—the upper ranks gorgeously arrayed and 
plentifully begirt with swords. The luggage filled four cars on 
the Panama railroad. There were fifteen boxes of presents for 
President Buchanan and others. There was a beautiful “ Sharpe’s 
rifle ” made by the Japanese as an improvement on the real Ameri¬ 
can Sharpe presented to the Japanese by Commodore Perry six 
years earlier. The Japanese improvement consisted in an arrange¬ 
ment for cocking, priming and cutting off the cartridge, all at once. 
This has gone by now, but it was a forecast of Japanese aptitudes 
which we have seen illustrated in the late war. The money which 


250 


DUBOIS—JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


[April 2 i, 


the orientals brought bulked immensely, too, for it consisted of 
Mexican silver and United States half-dollars. 

Under command of Dupont the Philadelphia proceeded at once 
to Old Point Comfort, where for the first time Fort Monroe sub¬ 
mitted to an almond-eyed inspection. There were no snap-shot 
cameras in those days, but the foresighted orientals had brought 
with them alert and skilled artists who immediately busied them¬ 
selves making sketches of our boasted stronghold. And indeed 
these deft wielders of the brush were thus busy throughout the 
entire sojourn of the embassy among us. Who shall say that the 
many cartoons of things American which were thus officially carried 
back to Japan are not to be counted among the germs of a later 
expansion ? Who knows but that these pictures helped to leaven 
the motif, eight years later, of the Emperor’s edict at his crowning— 
“ The bad customs of past ages shall be abolished and our govern¬ 
ment shall tread in the paths of civilization and enlightenment. We 
shall endeavor to raise the prestige and honor of our country by 
seeking knowledge throughout the world.” 

On the same day, May 14, the embassy was received at the 
Washington Navy Yard by the commandant, Capt. Franklin 
Buchanan—the man who, less than two years later, commanded the 
Merrimac in her destructive work, in which she was finally van¬ 
quished by the little Monitor. 

The landing of the embassy at the Washington Navy Yard was 
a brilliant and imposing spectacle. From the navy yard the 
orientals were driven under military and civic escort to Willard’s 
Hotel—then the center of Washington’s social gravitation. It is not 
necessary to the argument to enlarge upon diplomatic details. 
Suffice it to note that the ambassadors and attaches, eight in all, on 
May 16, were driven to the Department of State, where letters were 
presented to Secretary Cass in Japanese, Dutch and English. All 
communication was done through two interpreters—Namoura- 
Gohajsiro, the Japanese who spoke Dutch, and Mr. Portman, the 
Hollander who spoke English. 

The next day, May 17, the ambassadors presented the Tycoon’s 
greeting to the President, of which the following was the published 
translation: 


l 9 io.] 


DUBOIS—JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


251 


To His Majesty, the President of the United States of America. I ex¬ 
press with respect: Lately the Governor of Shimoda, Insooye-Sinano-no- 
Kami and the Metske-Iwasi-Hego-no-Kami (Prince of Idzu), both Imperial 
Commissioners, had negotiated and decided with Townsend Harris, the Min¬ 
ister Plenipotentiary of your country, an affair of amity and commerce, and 
concluded previously the treaty in the city of Yeddo. And now the ratifica¬ 
tion of the treaty is sent with the Commissioners of Foreign Affairs, Simme- 
Buzen-no-Kami, and Minagake-Awzi-no-Kami to exchange the mutual treaty. 
It proceeds from a particular importance of affairs and a perfectly amicable 
feeling. Henceforth the intercourse of friendship shall be held between both 
countries and benevolent feeling shall be cultivated more and more and 
never altered. Because the now deputed three subjects are those whom I 
have chosen and confided in for the present post, I desire you to grant them 
your consideration, charity and respect. Herewith I desire you to spread my 
sincere wish for friendly relations and I also have the honor to congratulate 
you on the security and welfare of your country.” 

(It would be easy to improve the English of this translation, 
but I give it as it was rendered at the time.) 

The third envoy, unnamed in this letter, was Oguri-Bungo-no- 
Kami, and was known as the censor (or spy) ; following in order 
were the treasury officer who had full authority over the finances 
of the embassy, the governor (or executive manager), aids, in¬ 
terpreters, doctors, guards of the treaty box, and servants including 
“ spies ”—in all, seventy-six. The three “ princes ” who head the 
list as ambassadors were of equal rank with those who negotiated 
the treaties with Perry and Harris. They were not hereditary 
princes of the blood but Samurai members of the Tycoon’s foreign 
affairs council. 

It will be remembered that when Harris signed the treaty of 
commerce in 1858 it was stipulated that the ratifications should be 
interchanged in Washington. The formalities of the ratification of 
Harris’s treaty were now in order. That this was a matter of 
moment to both nations and regarded as more than a picturesque 
affair of good feeling will become apparent. This is what President 
Buchanan said about it in his annual message to Congress seven 
months later (i860) : 

The ratifications of the treaty with Japan concluded at Yeddo on the 
29th July, 1858, were exchanged at Washington on the 22nd May last and the 
treaty itself was proclaimed on the suceeding day. There is good reason to 
expect that under its protection and influence our trade and intercourse with 
that interesting people will rapidly increase. 


:252 


DUBOIS—JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


[April 21 , 


The ratifications of the treaty were exchanged with unusual solemnity. 
For this purpose the Tycoon had accredited three of his most distinguished 
^subjects as envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary who were 
received and treated with marked distinction and kindness both by the gov- 
♦ernment and people of the United States. There is every reason to believe 
that they have returned to their native land entirely satisfied with their 
visit and inspired by the most friendly feelings for our country. Let us 
ardently hope, in the language of the treaty itself, that “ there shall hence¬ 
forward be perpetual peace and friendship between the United States of 
America and His Majesty the Tycoon of Japan and his successors.” 

Three weeks of state formalities, sight-seeing, and social func¬ 
tions—including the President’s dinner on May 25, brought this 
first stage of the embassage to a close by a formal leave-taking in the 
blue room of the White House, June 5, at which a large gold medal 
was presented to each of the princes. But is this all? Is there 
enough in these three weeks of state and social function to generate 
definite lines of development and to vitalize latent powers and ideals 
such as we wonderingly view in these latter days? No. The em¬ 
bassy had one other official commission which could be fulfilled only 
in Philadelphia. It was in the matter of money and exchange. 

After a brief stop in Baltimore the orientals arrived Saturday, 
June 9, in Philadelphia. For weeks the city had been stirred 
to its depths planning and making arrangements for the unpre¬ 
cedented event. The industrial metropolis had much to show to a 
nation sp skilled in artizanship as the Japanese. Best of all, here 
was the mint, which, after treaty formalities, was the chief focal 
point of the visit to the United States. 

The train drawn by an engine wrapped in the Japanese and 
United States flags, arrived in the afternoon at the old “ Baltimore 
Depot” at Broad and Prime Streets (now Washington Avenue). 
Here the envoys with Captain Dupont and Lieutenant Porter, were 
met by Mayor Henry, members of council, judges and other public 
men numbering about two hundred—and dense crowds of the 
populace. The long procession of nearly a hundred carriages filed 
up Broad Street under an imposing escort of about two thousand 
cavalry and infantry led by General Robert E. Patterson and staff, 
and greeted by the din of popular huzzahs. Thousands of eyes 
were strained to glimpse the novel type of physiognomy peering 



i9io.] 


DUBOIS—JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


253 


curiously out from the carriages. The Japanese artists were busily 
sketching as they rode our streets. Extraordinary curiosity arose 
from the closely drawn shades of one of the carriages, which 
eventually gave rise to a rumor that the occupant was in disgrace 
because he had “ stopped watching the treaty box ”—its sacred im¬ 
port having been already heralded by the newspapers. The pro¬ 
cession brought up at the Continental Hotel where the embassy was 
regally entertained. The police carried the treaty chest into the 
hotel and guarded it under lock and key. During the week’s sojourn 
in Philadelphia, crowds surrounded the hotel straining for a vision 
of the orientals as they appeared at their windows, but, said the 
reporters, the people “ couldn’t see a mite of difference between them 
and negroes!” 

The Japanese were not unaware of the unique reputation of the 
Philadelphia Mint. All its early officers had been scientific men or 
high mechanists and not politicians. Politics had but recently in¬ 
vaded the management but the assayer and his assistant in a peculiar 
sense had given the mint a world-wide reputation for specialized 
accuracy. Their published works and the unvarying maintenance 
of the standard fineness of the coinage, for over a quarter-century 
of their incumbency, together with their comprehensive knowledge 
of the whole intricate operation of minting, had been a highly im¬ 
portant although a popularly unapprehended factor in the national 
credit. For a nation, then, that had in itself the seeds of progress, 
a rising curiosity as to western methods, a tendency to catholicity, 
a receptivity to impressions, and an adaptive originality—as the 
Japanese had, notwithstanding a long isolation followed by internal 
strife—for a nation of this sort, America, and more particularly 
Philadelphia and especially the Mint, was the place to come. 

On the morning of June 13 the envoys were received at the mint. 
In his address of greeting the director said that an international 
coinage was not likely to be realized, but he advised the foreigners 
to adopt the American standard. A mutual knowledge of the cur¬ 
rency of both nations would promote commerce as well as friendly 
relations. 

Preliminary formalities being over the occasion was so extra- 





254 


DUBOIS—JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


[April 21 , 


ordinary that a messenger was quietly despatched with orders to go 
to a nearby grammar school and procure a release for the day of 
three pupils, sons of the assayer and his assistant^, bring them to 
the laboratory where their education might take a rare turn in a 
leisurely and close contact with the ambassadors and their at¬ 
tendants. I was the youngest of those three boys, and I am now 
drawing on memory which is both stimulated and held in leash by 
certain mementos, personal notes of the assistant assayer, various 
public prints and official documentary memoranda. 

Entering the little “ weigh room ” attached to the laboratory the 
astonished youths saw the first and third ambassadors (the latter 
known as the censor), a stout functionary known as the governor, 
two interpreters—one Dutch and one Japanese—and perhaps one or 
two attaches, and a “ prince ” travelling unofficially for pleasure but 
in company with the embassy. 

The high dignitaries were superbly dressed in silk brocaded, or 
inwoven, with gold, the pajamas or trousers being figured in ex¬ 
quisite patterns and as wide as skirts; the body-covering a loosely 
crossed waistcoat over which was a kimono or long loose coat. The 
paper handkerchiefs were carried in the crosswrap of the waist¬ 
coat. The fore part of the head was shaved while down the center 
of the crown a tightly twisted lock or short braid lay glued stiff 
and tied with white cord. The sandals were held in place with 
white silk cords. The ambassadors wore three swords, the lesser 
officers two—a sign of the Samurai or ruling military caste and a 
badge of honor now abolished. 

As the boys entered, one of the expert under-assayers was seated 
at the delicate balance explaining the process. This was addressed 
to the Hollander, Mr. Portman, who in turn addressed the 
Japanese interpreter, Namoura, in Dutch. Namoura, in turn, trans¬ 
lated the Dutch into Japanese and addressed the third ambassador 
who, in turn, communicated the information to the first ambassador 
—who received it with the utmost imperturbable and silent gravity. 
Whether he took it all in or not we boys could not tell. 

The censor or third ambassador, Oguri, and the governor, 
Narousa, fat and spectacled with heavily rimmed glasses, were the 


(Reproduced from original photographs by W. G. Germon) 



O 
i C 

H X 

R > 
JO 

D _ 
JO O 

m o 
m I 
x > 
(_ 
in 


o 

m 

x 

m 

o 

c 

H 

< 

m 

O 

■n 

2j 

n 

m 

JJ 


H 

in 

o 

> 

X 

> 

X 

> 

c 

Q 

m 

x 

O 


































■ 






































i9io.] 


DUBOIS—JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


255 


active investigators. Oguri produced a sort of steelyard of ivory 
with which he proceeded to test our weights against his own. The 
censor also brought forth an abacus or counting machine consisting 
of fifteen rows of wooden buttons sliding by five on parallel wires. 
Quite in accord with these crude and antiquated methods was the 
demand that the gold cobang (about as big as the palm of the hand) 
should be assayed not by a sample cut from it, but by consuming the 
entire piece. The chief assayer, Jacob R. Eckfeldt, and his as¬ 
sistant, William E. DuBois, were for the moment nonplussed by so 
extraordinary a request. High accuracy demanded very small 
samples and their department was nothing if not scientifically pre¬ 
cise. But the heathenish proposition was uncompromising and the 
whole cobang it must be. When, after two or three hours, the gold 
had been separated and weighed and its fineness thus ascertained the 
envoys were not satisfied. They must next know exactly of what 
the alloy was made up. Sure enough, we see in this very demand 
an indication of what we have seen since—thoroughness. 

Three cobangs were thus tested and to satisfy the strangers, also 
a United States gold dollar. Notwithstanding the cumbrous method 
of using an entire piece the results were exceedingly satisfactory— 
the cobangs running about 572 parts fine in 1,000. (It should be 
stated that while the embassy was yet in Washington a number of 
their coins were forwarded to Philadelphia to be tested in advance 
of the embassy’s inspection. There were about twenty-five pieces 
in all, gold and silver itzebus and gold cobangs. They ran with a 
fair approach to uniformity.) At intervals, during the long opera¬ 
tions the orientals took a short squat on their heels to smoke their 
tiny pipes. A luncheon was served to them in the mint when the 
display of chop-stick skill—picking up one pea at a time at high 
speed with two sticks, for instance—was recreating to observant 
America. 

After this the envoys requested the mint officers to meet them at 
the Continental Hotel and hold a conference on matters relative to 
a comparison of Japanese and American coinage and means of 
exchange. Accordingly, Director Snowden and his clerk Linder- 
man; the assayer, Eckfeldt, and his assistant, DuBois; and the 


256 


DUBOIS—JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


[April 21 , 


Melter and Refiner, Booth, repaired thither in the afternoon. Ex¬ 
actly what took place there we do not know. But the indications 
are that it was a “ campaign of education ” and that it was a spoke 
in the wheel of closer and fairer monetary relations, including the 
possibility of international coinage—in which movement Assayers 
Eckfeldt and DuBois were conspicuous promoters. The next day 
the embassy was at the mint again and the work continued. 

A carefully written account at the time said: 

The very intricate business connected with the currency question between 
the United States and the Empire of Japan (the adjustment of which is one 
of the principal objects of the embassy) and which had been theoretically 
explained by the officers of the Treasury Department at Washington has been 
solved to the satisfaction of the envoys by the assays performed in their pres¬ 
ence at the mint. The importance and value of this very desirable result can¬ 
not be overestimated and the thanks of the country are due to the officers of 
that institution for the very skilful manner in which they have discharged the 
duties imposed upon them by the government at Washington in connection 
with this business. 

The tests having been concluded on the second day the envoys 
were again formally addressed by the director, who presented to 
them a certified copy of the results and also a full set of the current 
United States coins handsomely cased. The censor replied, thank¬ 
ing the officers of the mint for their courteous attention, expressing 
satisfaction with the results, and promising to lay the whole matter 
before his government so that a system of exchange could be 
arranged between the two countries. 

A slight digression may be permitted just here to illustrate the 
need for such adjustment of exchange if commerce was to be en¬ 
couraged by the treaties. I quote from the private note book of my 
father, then the assistant assayer of the mint. It was written the 
next year—1861. 

Before the Japanese Embassy started for this country a silver itzebu 
was coined, which was intrinsically one third of the Mexican dollar. (The 
itzebu was the monetary unit of the empire.) About the same time, for 
Hakodadi only, a northern port where American trade chiefly centered, they 
coined a half itzebu (so stamped on its face) whose weight was equal to 
half a Mexican dollar (a little over in fact) and the alleged fineness the 
same. The object of this was to meet a treaty provision which made 
Mexican dollars interchangeable with silver itzebus, weight for weight. By 


i 9 io.] 


DUBOIS—JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


257 


this rule they would take from Americans a thousand dollars, and give in 
exchange two thousand of these new coins, being the equivalent in weight. 
But when the Americans came to buy goods with the coins they were in¬ 
formed that their current value was only a half-itzebu, according to the 
stamp. That is to say, a Japanese could pay them to an American, at the 
rate of two to the dollar; but could only receive them at the rate of six 
to the dollar. And if offered their itz-ebu (one-third dollar) they did not 
want it—had enough of them! Thus, there was a half-itzebu worth fifty 
per cent, over the whole itzebu for the sake of a shallow artifice. The 
embassy did not bring the former piece (the half-itzebu ) with them but only 
the latter (the whole itzebu). 

The half-itzebus were not equivalent in fineness although they 
were over-full in weight. They assayed 846 thousandths fine as 
against 900, and weighed 210.0 grains as against, say two tenths of 
a grain, over a half-Mexican dollar. 

Thus, there was need for a basis of exchange. Moreover, the 
coinage had become debased, the feudal lords had secretly issued 
money, and the country was flooded with counterfeits. Paper 
money had depreciated and finance was unsound. 

It has been shown in the earlier portion of this paper that at the 
time of the embassy Japan was in a state of internecine strife, that 
the Shogunate had been undergoing changes, and that a few years 
later (1867-8) the crisis came in which the real government was 
restored to the Mikado and the feudal Shogunate abolished. Just 
prior to this, however, in 1866, the Mikado, or Emperor, had ratified 
all foreign treaties of the Shogunate, and they continued in force. 
In 1870 the distinguished statesman, the Marquis Ito, was sent to 
the United States to study monetary methods and coinage standards. 
While here he wrote a memorandum on “ Reasons for Basing the 
Japanese New Coinage on the Metric system/’ During Ito’s ab¬ 
sence from Japan the Hongkong mint was purchased and with 
British aid carried over to Osaka. Ito wrote home recommending 
the ultimate adoption of the gold standard although not yet quite 
feasible. However, the metric or decimal system was adopted and 
the currency closely conformed to that of the United States, the yen 
being the equivalent of our dollar and the sen the equivalent of our 
cent. It cannot be doubted that the first experience of the Japanese 
with the working of the metric system was obtained in our mint, as 


PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC., XLIX. 1 95 Q, PRINTED AUGUST I, IpIO. 


258 


DUBOIS—JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


[April 21 , 


the assay process is based on it and the money scheme is decimal, 
while the British scheme is not. Neither can it be doubted that the 
impressions carried back by the envoys in i860 were factors in Ito’s 
mission ten and eleven years later under a new government. 

Ito was one of the progressives from Perry days, who (as previ¬ 
ously explained) assumed an anti-occidental complexion merely for 
the sake of opposing the Shogunate. Prince Iwakura who headed 
the embassy of 1872, was another of those connecting links. He 
had not been favorable to foreigners but yet he had incurred the 
enmity of the Shogun’s opposers. Under the empire he became one 
of the ablest of the emperor’s advisers and was especially interested 
in the revision of the old treaties, which it took years to accomplish. 
Another was Matsukata, the father of the gold standard in Japan 
and the introducer of the metric system; and still another was 
Shibusawa, the father of the national banking system. 

I11 1872 Ito was here again, this time on a mission of which 
Prince Iwakura was the head. In an eloquent address in San Fran¬ 
cisco, Ito said: “ A year ago I examined minutely the financial sys¬ 
tem of the United States and every detail was reported to my gov¬ 
ernment. The suggestions then made have been adopted and some 
of them are already in practical operation.” The result was as 
already noted. Banking and even a postal system on American 
models also followed in this year. 

That the lessons of i860 were active forces in this later day is 
further evidenced in a private letter to the heads of the Assay De¬ 
partment from Dr. H. R. Linderman, previously the chief clerk of 
the mint in the days of the embassy and later a treasury agent in 
Washington versed in mint matters. This letter requested that the 
two under-assayers do him the favor to prepare as early as con¬ 
venient a brief description of the processes in use at the mint. “ I 
desire this information,” said the letter, “ to incorporate in a paper 
which I am preparing for the Japanese at the request of the depart¬ 
ment. They shall have due credit for their work and will place me 
under obligations.” This was in March, 1871—the very year of 
the enactment of Japan’s new coinage law under the pressure of 
Ito and Matsukata. 


i 9 io.] 


DUBOIS—JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


259 


The two young under-assayers were the schoolboys of i860, 
Jacob B. Eckfeldt (the present chief assayer) and the present 
writer, whose recollections of the envoys of the Shogunate were still 
vivid in their memories. 

In a very real sense, then, Ito had become the connecting link 
and the effectuating successor of the envoys of i860, anti-Shogu- 
nate as he had been, and now under the new Imperial regime, as he 
was. Notwithstanding the great break with the past on the incom¬ 
ing of the Meiji or “ Enlightened Rule,” the restoration to power 
of the Mikado-Emperor, there was an efficient continuity of the 
westernism inaugurated officially by the Shogun. The treaties of 
Perry and Harris and the Washington ratification still held in spite 
of various attempts to discredit and revise them, even in the 
seventies. Not until 1894 did such revision take place. To the 
credit of the Shogunate in its later days of the sixties be it said, the 
degenerated condition of its antiquated and heterogeneous monetary 
system and coinage was realized. It was seen with alarm that 
western commerce under the treaties was suffering and would suffer 
unless there was reform in the coinage. Hence the capital im¬ 
portance of the visit of the embassy of i860 to the mint at Phila¬ 
delphia. 

The story revealed in these last few paragraphs, however, shows 
that the spirit of the Shogun and the impressions carried home by 
his now almost forgotten embassy remained as a wholesome and 
permanent leaven. Under Ito, Matsukata, Iwakura and others, the 
impressions carried home by the first embassy came to fruitage not 
only in an Americanized monetary and coinage system but in what 
lies deeper than these—the moral standard of a trustworthy pre¬ 
cision in the manufacture of coin in which the Philadelphia mint has 
led the world. That this principle and achievement had become an 
ambitious scientific and commercial motif in new Japan is further 
evidenced in other ways. For instance, in 1875 sample coins were 
sent from the imperial mint at Osaka to our Department of State 
with the request from the Japanese government that these coins 
be carefully tested at the Philadelphia mint. The result of the test 
(in which I myself had an active part) was very satisfactory. 


260 


DUBOIS—JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


[April 2i, 


Similarly, we received for assay through the Japanese legation gold 
and silver coins in 1876, 1877, 1878, 1879, 1880. These were what 
are known as pyx coins, which are selected at random through the 
year for an annual test. They were invariably close to the standard, 
tending somewhat to run over rather than under it. Thus the pace 
set before the embassy of i860 was the pace which the mint at 
Osaka under our stimulus was setting for itself. The Enlightened 
Rule recognized that a nation’s position among commercial nations 
rests in very large degree on the confidence to be placed in the 
scientific precision of its coinage. 

Leaving now this great essential result of the first embassy, let 
us look for other indications of its influence in the making of a new 
Japan. 

While in Philadelphia the two physicians attached to the em¬ 
bassy, Measaki and Moryama, together with the governor Narousa- 
Genosiro, and the interpreter, attended an operation for lithotomy 
performed by the distinguished Dr. Samuel B. Gross, at the patient’s 
residence. The anaesthetic was administered by the famous Mor¬ 
ton himself, the discoverer of sulphuric ether for this use. The 
whole performance was a revelation to the orientals. They smelt 
and poured the ether on their hands, astonished at the coldness 
resulting from its evaporation. After the operation they carefully 
examined the instruments and showed so much interest in the 
whole subject that they were invited to attend the Jefferson Medical 
College, in which Dr. Gross was a professor. 

In an address delivered before the students of the Jefferson 
in February, 1906, Baron Takaki, Surgeon General of the Japanese 
Navy, said: 

Japanese surgery is founded on the teachings of Dr. Samuel D. Gross for 
so many years surgeon in the splendid medical college in which we are 
gathered. Dr. Gross’ “ System of Surgery ” translated into German was taken 
by my countrymen and retranslated into Japanese and upon that has been 
built up Japanese surgery as practiced to-day. 

The Baron said that the thanks of the Japanese nation are due 
to the medical profession in this country, and added, 

The United States has been our teacher. We have tried our best to prove 
our faith in your teachings and doctrines by effective applications of your 
principles in safeguarding the health of our people. 


i 9 io.] 


DUBOIS—JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


261 


In view of the impression made upon the doctors of the first 
embassy by Dr. Gross himself it is hardly possible that his name 
was unknown in Japan until his book was carried there from 
Germany. Undoubtedly this is another one of those cases of the 
long slow-but-sure working of American leaven through many poli¬ 
tical vicissitudes. 

It is inadvisable to prolong this paper for many further details 
of the doings of the embassy during the week in Philadelphia. 
Suffice it to note, in brief, that among the places visited were John¬ 
son’s type foundry—where the orientals were presented with a book 
of specimen types and cuts and a silver mounted case of type; 
M’Allister’s optical and philosophical instrument establishment 
where they witnessed experiments with air pumps, electrical ma¬ 
chines, etc., and a lantern exhibition in which the Drummond light 
excited great curiosity; to the great foundries of the Merricks and 
of Morris, Tasker & Co.; to the gas works, where “grand stands” 
had been erected and were filled with hundreds of invited Philadel¬ 
phians of both sexes—chiefly to witness the ascension of two great 
balloons (or rather to see Japanese for the first time behold aerial 
travel) ; to Bailey’s jewelry establishment where, after examining 
with magnifiers the works of watches, they ordered a lot of them to 
be sent to their rooms, and where they showed judgment in the pur¬ 
chase of opera glasses, appreciating the chromatic lens, and caring 
little for such merely ornamental work as their own artificers could 
equal or excell. They chose the plain and the useful, displaying a 
keen selective sense. Here, too, the envoys were presented with a 
medal especially designed and struck by the Bailey house to com¬ 
memorate the occasion. In addition to these places visits were paid 
to Baldwin’s locomotive works, Sellers’s machine works, the water 
works, and Girard College. 

The Japanese were loaded with all manner of specimens of tools, 
instruments and products of our skilled workers—including pictures 
of the Baldwin engines, stereoscopes and views, a superb Sloat sew¬ 
ing machine encased in wood from Mount Vernon and (so said) 
the Treaty Elm; a Disston saw, level, gauge and square; a set of 
teeth on a gold plate, and many other samples of American origi¬ 
nality, skill and enterprise. 


262 


DUBOIS—JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


[April 21, 


The mention of the set of artificial teeth on a gold plate suggests 
a pendant to Gross’ surgery. The modern development of 
Japanese dentistry is wholly American. According to Dr. Chiwaki, 
the president of the Tokio Dental College, 1 dentistry, as an art, is 
about two centuries old in Japan. In some respects the old 
dentistry was barbarous and crude but artificial dentures were made 
of carved wood—also of alabaster or ivory riveted to a base of hard 
wood. But on the whole the art was clumsy and its pursuit became 
disreputable. 

“ Perry’s feat, however,” says Dr. Chiwaki, “ brought about a 
many-sided change in the political, social and educational institu¬ 
tions of Japan; and, in consequence, the old system of dentistry 
could not remain unaffected.” Two American dentists, Dr. East- 
lake and Dr. W. St. George Elliott, opened offices at the beginning 
of the Meiji era. This was “the first direct cause of the develop¬ 
ment of our dentistry in the true sense of the word.” Others fol¬ 
lowed, and the Japanese came to the United States for dental educa¬ 
tion. Japan now manufactures dentist’s appliances and supports 
at least two dental colleges. 

The introduction of American dentistry to Japan is not directly 
traceable to the embassy of i860 but- its acceptance is one of those 
forms of Japanese confidence in American models first gained as a 
national leaven in the days of the Shogun. 

For the sake of completeness and also to note two or three inci¬ 
dents or facts of contributory import in estimating results this study 
must follow the embassy out of Philadelphia to New York, Satur¬ 
day, June 18, where there was repetition of street procession and 
general ovation as in Philadelphia. (On this very day the news of 
the assassination of the regent arrived by letter to the New York 
Tribune.) 

According to an account in the Tribune the street scenes on the 
route of entry from the Battery to the Metropolitan Hotel on 
Broadway, were free from those “ riotous excesses ” which char¬ 
acterized the multitude at Philadelphia. Never, said the Tribune, 
had more human beings been congregated at and below the Battery 


1 Dental Cosmos, October, 1905. 


igio.] 


DUBOIS—JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


263 


than the envoys found awaiting them as the boat from South Amboy 
arrived. But the Metropolitan Hotel was at no time so riotously 
besieged as was the Continental in Philadelphia. 

Barring the visits to two or three manufacturing establishments, 
the time was chiefly occupied with social functions, shopping, boat 
•excursions, theaters and in packing the mountainous wares which 
they had bought and which had also been lavishly bestowed upon 
them largely for advertising purposes. In time, the envoys and 
lesser officers acutely discerned that they were being exploited. 
Many invitations were declined. Finally, so indecorous a pressure 
was put upon them to visit the opera in spite of their resolute 
declination that a serious affray was narrowly averted. 

The embassy, having grown weary of their spectacular exploita¬ 
tion in New York, resolved to cut Boston and Niagara out of their 
program and set sail for Japan as soon as possible. They accord¬ 
ingly departed by the largest of our naval fleet, the Niagara, on 
Saturday, June 30, first steaming around the world’s wonder, the 
Great Eastern, which had arrived only two days before and which 
now succeeded the Japanese as a popular ferment. 

In the retrospect: Those were stirring times. The greatest ship 
in the world had crossed the Atlantic, Garibaldi had just taken 
Palermo, Lincoln had been nominated, and the Democratic Party 
had split into the Douglass and Breckenridge factions. The ocean 
cable itself was only two years old; the John Brown insurrection 
had occurred only nine months before; Mr. Lowe, the aeronaut, was 
planning a balloon voyage across the Atlantic; and the Prince of 
Wales was soon to be entertained. 

The New York Tribune gave up two pages of small type to a 
description of the voyage of the Great Eastern, and Mr. Greeley 
editorially declared her to be a wonder without much maritime 
significance for the simple reason that only three or four harbors 
in the world could receive so huge a ship. The same big-brained, 
generally level-headed editor was unable to attach any practical im¬ 
portance to the visit of the Japanese. He saw through New York 
eyes and thus rhetorically delivered himself: 

If they [the Japanese] have the acuteness to see, as possibly they have, 
the uses to which they have been put, to gratify the inordinate vanity, the 


264 


DUBOIS—JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


[April 21 , 


inordinate greed, and the inordinate folly of those with whom they have come 
chiefly in contact, and if they believe that in these they see reflected the 
character of the whole people, then heaven help our reputation in Japan 
when these sons of hers go home. But let us hope they did not understand. 
In the simplicity of their natures and manners let us trust that they have 
gone back to their own country impressed not only with our material superi- 
rity but believing also that in all Christian graces, in the amenities of social 
life, in the refinements of personal good breeding we are unmeasurably 
their masters. ... Of almost all that an intelligent traveller would like 
to be informed they have gone away as ignorant as they came. . . . Against 
the acquirement of all useful knowledge except in a few rare instances which 
make the rule more apparent, they have been sedulously guarded and the 
opportunity lost which will never recur again of impressing a people eager 
in the attainment of the arts of peace, with the true source of the wealth 
and power of Christian civilization. 

Another New York paper thus commented: 

They are small of stature, tawny of complexion, sleepy and feeble in 
their physical appearance and habits, and with only those characteristics 
calculated to excite a momentary curiosity. 

The Philadelphia view was different. The Inquirer said: 

They saw the triumphs of science and art made subservient to the 
comfort and happiness not to special classes merely, but to all. They can¬ 
not separate these things from the effects of our political institutions and 
it will be extraordinary indeed if they disconnect them from the benign 
influence of Christianity. 

This is the true note—the note which this paper has essayed tO' 
demonstrate as proved by time. Mr. Greeley in the case of the 
Japanese, as in that of monster ships like the Great Eastern, was a 
bad prophet. He argued that the embassy avowed before arrival 
that it had no ministerial powers except those of signing the treaty 
and collecting information concerning our currency with a view to 
better ultimate international adjustment. 

But Mr. Greeley saw nothing in this. He referred to the confer¬ 
ences at the mint but was unable to figure out anything feasible. 
The relations which gold bore to silver in Japan and their artificial 
value in coinage forbade any basis of equitable exchange. Indeed, 
he believed, if through their labors at the mint, the Japanese were 
to adopt the new standards for estimating the values of the precious 
metals, “ it is easy to see that the monetary affairs of the empire 
might be thrown into great confusion.” 


i 9 io.] 


DUBOIS—JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


265 


But we in this day know that the Japanese were not so simple 
in their natures, not so sleepy and feeble, as the New York editors 
supposed. Neither did they go away as ignorant as they came. 
Nor were they so ignorant when they came. Long before Perry’s 
day Japan had had her martyrs to progress and reform. News 
from the outside leaked in and shadows of western mechanism and 
methods fell on the isolated empire. Men like Fujita Toko and 
Sakuma Slum had telescopic vision and sensitive hearing. So the 
envoys of the Tycoon knew that there were advantages to be 
improved in going to the United States over and above that of 
signing the Harris treaty. They had the penetration to see that a 
sound currency and facilities of finance were the pivot of inter¬ 
national commercial relations. They were impressed with the fact 
that international confidence rested chiefly on that scientific accuracy 
which they saw in the operations of coinage and especially those 
that guarded the integrity of the standards of fineness. The prob¬ 
lem which Mr. Greeley saw as insoluble, was gradually worked out 
by Ito and Matsukata until Japan possessed a system of coinage 
modeled on and comparable with that of the United States, and 
resting on a gold basis. 

A letter written to President David Starr Jordan by the dis¬ 
tinguished Japanese scientist, Dr. Mitsukuri, in 1900, confirms the 
trend of this paper as a contention for an unbroken continuity of 
influence on the development of Japan—in spite of the dismal de¬ 
liverances of these American prophets of i860. 

Dr. Mitsukuri says: 

The history of the international relations between the United States and 
Japan is full of episodes which evince an unusually strong and almost ro¬ 
mantic friendship existing between the two nations. In the first place, Japan 
has never forgotten that it was America who first roused her from the 
lethargy of centuries of secluded life. It was through the earnest representa¬ 
tions of America that she concluded the first treaty with a foreign nation 
in modern times, and opened her country to the outside world. Then, all 
through the early struggles of Japan to obtain a standing among the civi¬ 
lized nations of the world, America always stood by Japan as an elder brother 
by a younger sister. It was always America who first recognized the rights 
of Japan in any of her attempts to retain autonomy within her own terri¬ 
tory. A large percentage of foreign teachers working earnestly in schools 
was Americans, and many a Japanese recalls with gratitude the great efforts 
his American teachers made on his behalf. 


266 


DUBOIS—JAPANESE EMBASSY OF i860. 


[April 2\y. 


Then, kindness and hospitality shown thousands of youths who went over 
to America to obtain their education have gone deep into the heart of the- 
nation, and, what is more, many of these students themselves are now hold¬ 
ing important positions in the country, and they always look back with' 
affectionate feelings to their stay in America. 

In conclusion, it is immensely interesting to see that what Japan 
came to America for on her first embassy is precisely that which she- 
has retained as the essential element of her international develop¬ 
ment. She afterward went to Germany for army organization and 
got it; she went to Great Britain for naval ideas and got them; she 
came here for coinage, exchange, and got them. Moreover, her 
friendship with the United States has been practically continuous 
while from 1861 to 1863 she was in hot water with England and 
France. Incidentally, she carried away our surgery, and no one 
knows how many minor constructive principles; later she borrowed 
our banking and postal systems, transplanted our dentistry, and 
made obeisance to American invention by overspreading the empire- 
with our telegraph. 

The embassy of i860, as was said at the outset, was but the com¬ 
pleting touch of the treaties of Perry and Harris. All these con¬ 
stitute a single event but an event that is a gigantic factor in the 
world’s progress. Why the most practical part of it—the embassy 
—has dropped into such profound oblivion is beyond comprehen¬ 
sion. Perhaps it was one of those events which are too broad and 
too potent to be discerned in less than a half century as the mark 
of a world-moving era. 


LB Mr ’ll 



















$ 




■- 


































% 












* 




































. 






*' 








* 




s 


























I 

























r 











































